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The overall goal of Project Open JBI Components is to foster community-based development of JBI components that conform to the Java Business Integration specification (JSR 208). You can join this project as a JBI component developer or as part of an existing JBI component development team. Starting your own component project is relatively straightforward: you have the option to create your JBI component project as a regular Java.Net project. Joining an established development team might take a little longer and require additional approvals.

As announced in a recent press release, the non-profit industry consortium CableLabs has launched the OpenCable Project on java.net. The OpenCable Platform is a Java-based middleware software layer that "provides the opportunity for operators to deliver interactive services and applications to consumers bundled with their other service offerings. Content Programmers may also leverage the OpenCable Platform to enhance their own programming and advertising offerings and perhaps evolve new businesses around these new services."

The OpenJDK JDK 6 project, a backport of the evolving GPL+CPE codebase to the JDK 6 spec, has posted its first source release. Due to IP encumbrances, some classes are not available as source, and are instead provided as "binary plugs" for Windows, Solaris (32- and 64-bit) and Linux (i586 and AMD64). More details about the project are available in Joe Darcy's blog and his initial project proposal. Those interested in the OpenJDK project will also want to check out the OpenJDK Developers' Guide, an early attempt to document everything needed by would-be contributors, from checking out code to contributing patches.

"A global search is on -- to find the coolest Java technology innovations on the planet. Don't miss this opportunity to be recognized as one of the Java developer community elite at JavaOne, in San Francisco. The primary judging criteria for this prestigious award is innovation -- putting small developer shops on an equal footing with multi-national giants." The annual Duke's Choice Awards celebrate extreme innovation in the world of Java technology and are granted to the best and most innovative projects using the Java platform. Submissions are now open for this year's awards, and can be submitted through March 14. Winners will be notified by April 4, and announced at JavaOne 2008.

The ROME Modules Subproject combines a number of contributed ROME plugins into a single distribution for users who want to work with feeds from major RSS sources. Included modules allow you to work with such feeds at iTunes podcasts, A9 OpenSearch, Slash-based blogs, Yahoo! Weather and more. The subproject's wiki page serves as a guide to module-makers, as well as providing guidance to users of the modules.

This week's Ask The Experts topic is "Developing and Deploying Java SE-Based Applications on Solaris". "Are you developing or deploying Java SE applications in the Solaris Operating System? Do you have a question about Java SE technology in Solaris? Post it during this session and get answers from three people at Sun Microsystems who have lots of experience with the intersection of Java SE and Solaris: Dave Dice, Alan Bateman, and Valerie Peng."

The Roller Support Project
"povides themes, plugins and other add-ons
for the Apache Roller blog server.
If you've got a theme or plugin you'd like to contribute then speak up
on the Apache Rollermailing lists. The Java.Net Roller Support site hosts sample applications and related components based on
the Apache Roller blog and planet servers."

The JADE Project is the JScience Advance Development Experimentation effort, an experimental subproject of the larger JScience project. "We have a complete standalone set of files and releases but we expect one day to merge the whole into the very ahead of time JScience official architecture. Check the documents and files section to try our code. The library supports almost everything you should expect." Aside from source, available documents include articles about JScience and numerical computing, benchmarking information, and more. JADE was the top project by CVS commits on java.net for November.

It has been one year since the open source Mobile & Embedded Community was launched and we have experienced tremendous growth and interest. With that in mind, Mobile & Embedded Community members are invited participate in a brief survey to tell us how we're doing and share ideas for the direction of the Community. We want to hear from you, so click on the link and take the Mobile & Embedded Community survey today.

That said, organizers are looking for participants to define what the conference program should cover, and encourage addition of new topics to the Conference Wiki. In any case, the CFP closes on January 31, 2008, and acceptances will be sent out by February 15.

This is the last week to get early-bird pricing for the Mobile & Embedded Developer Days conference. "This conference is devoted solely to the technologies of mobile and embedded Java platforms and will be a unique opportunity for application developers of intermediate and advanced skill levels, platform developers, and technical experts at tool vendors, OEMs and carriers to get introduced to the community, to join in and collaborate. Attendees will enjoy a broad range of technical sessions, lightning talks, poster sessions, panels, hands-on labs, and participatory sessions." Visit the conference's project page to check out the agenda, list of speakers, and planned sessions. The $175 early bird registration ends on November 30.

The Open Web SSO project (OpenSSO) provides core identity services to simplify the implementation of transparent single sign-on (SSO) as a security component in a network infrastructure. OpenSSO provides the foundation for integrating diverse web applications that might typically operate against a disparate set of identity repositories and are hosted on a variety of platforms such as web and application servers.

The JavaOne 2008Call for Papers is now open. This year's conference intends to broaden the scope of topics: "2008 will be the most significant evolution of the 13 years of the Conference. We have expanded our topics to include areas that appeal to development - not just in Java technology - but in areas of compatibility and interoperability as well. We are digging into next-generation scripting languages, Web 2.0, ecommerce collaboration, business management topics and more. We are also reaching out to include technologies that play well with Java, exploring the rich development platform available to all. Take this opportunity to share with the developer community how you use technology that relies on Java, leverages the Java programming language, and extends the Java platform." The CFP closes on Friday, November 16.

The openInstaller project, part of the GlassFish Community, is an open-source, next-generation, cross-platform software installer framework. According to the about openInstall page, "initial development of openInstaller was done by Sun Microsystems, but is now available under the open source Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL)", and the project is "currently staffed with some of the most experienced engineers and installation experts that Sun has to offer, but we are in the early stages of this endeavor and are looking for community contribution on the project to make it hands down the best installer framework out there."

This week's Ask The Experts session is on NetBeans, the free, open-source, Integrated Development Environment (IDE). NetBeans IDE 6.0, which is currently available as a beta download, contains a wealth of new features designed to make application development easier and faster. Got a question about NetBeans IDE 6.0? Post it during this session and get answers from key members of the NetBeans evangelism team: Judith Lilienfeld, Brian Leonard, and David Botterill.

The jVoiceBridge is software written in the Java Programming Language that handles Voice over IP (VoIP) audio communication and mixing for tasks such as conference calls, voice chat, speech detection, and audio for 3D virtual environments. The voice bridge supports a range of voice qualities from telephone to CD-quality. In addition, the voice bridge supports stereo audio and the ability for each individual connected to the Bridge to have their own private voice mix. The voice bridge enhances 3D virtual environments such as MPK20: Sun's Virtual Workplace by providing individually adjustable audio channels for each live avatar and each in-world recorded sound source.

The jMaki project for developing Ajax-enabled web applications has announced that version 1.0 is available for download. "jMaki is a lightweight client/server framework for creating JavaScript centric Web 2.0 applications using CSS layouts, widgets widget model, client services such as publish/subscribe events to tie widgets together, JavaScript action handlers, and a generic proxy to interact with external RESTful web services. While jMaki abstracts much of the JavaScript and CSS by providing defaults for widgets, the JavaScript widgets and CSS are made easily accessible so they may be customized by a designer or page developer. jMaki focuses on the aspects of delivering JavaScript to the client allowing the JavaScript to communicate to various server-technologies including PHP, Java (JSP/JSF), and Phobos in a server-technology neutral way."

The SailFin project is a communication application server that provides SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) functionality to GlassFish. As the project page points out, "SIP and SIP Servlets are behind many popular services we enjoy today, like Voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone service, instant messaging, presence and buddy list management and web conferencing." The project currently implements JSR-116 functionality and is working towards JSR 289 compatibility. SailFin Milestone 1 came out in October, and Milestone 2 is expected in October.

As part of the launch of GlassFish V2, the latest Ask the Expert session is about GlassFish v2, which "builds on the quality and feature richness of the initial GlassFish application server implementation, GlassFish V1, to provide higher value-add features for the enterprise. Got a question about GlassFish V2? Post it during the week of September 17 on the Ask the Experts page and get answers from GlassFish experts Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart, John Clingan, Sridatta Viswanath, Scott Oaks, and Dhiru Pandey."

The Timing Framework project for assisting in animation and timing-based Swing tasks, has released version 1.0. Chet Haase describes the framework in a recent blog, two earlier java.net articles (Timing Is Everything and Time Again), and his recent book Filthy Rich Clients. Chet writes "I figured it was important to declare a 'real' version 1.0, rather than simply incrementing the pre-1.0 version numbers. It's indicative of a lilbrary which, while not yet complete in all of the features that I and others would like to see, is at least solid, stable, and useable in its current state."

This week's SDN Ask The Experts session is on JSR-248, the Mobile Server Architecture. This Java ME optional package defines the next generation of the Java ME platform and serves as a follow-on to Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI). The MSA specification aims to address fragmentation issues and create a predictable environment for application developers who build applications for mobile handsets. Got a question about MSA? Post it between now and Friday and get answers from Mikhail Gorshenev, E-ming Saung, and Hinkmond Wong.

Prominently demo'ed on the JavaOne 2007 video wall, Iris is an online photo browsing, editing and slideshow application. More importantly, perhaps, it shows the power of modern Java applets and next generation web concepts. Among its significant features are interoperation with JavaScript on all major browsers, native desktop integration to support "drag and drop to the web", Java multithreading to hide network latency, advanced graphics handling, and dynamic extension of applets with technologies like OpenGL, OpenAL, and Java Media codecs.

The OpenJFX project's Casual is a JavaFX demo of an InstantMessaging (IM) client. It is meant to demonstrate the flexibility of the JavaFX Script language and its framework APIs. Available via Web Start, Casual provides the ability to log in to Jabber or Google Talk accounts and supports some basic IM functionality, including smilies, image and link embedding, and custom dialogs for new chat notification. Future releases are to include support for more IM protocols, menus and preferences, and a full-fledged buddy window.

Project Tango develops and evolves the codebase for Web Services Interoperability Technologies (WSIT) that enable interoperability between the Java platform and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) (aka Indigo). Project Tango's WSIT tecnology is bundled inside GlassFish v2. It is also possible to download a more recent version of WSIT and install into GlassFish or Tomcat. Project Tango uses JAX-WS and JAXB as a foundation upon which to build plugins to provide web services features such as bootstrapping communication, optimizing communication, reliable messaging, atomic transactions, security and trust.

JSR-315, the Java Servlet 3.0 specification, was recently accepted as a JSR by an 11-0 vote (with five abstentions). Nominations for membership in the expert group are now being accepted. The JSR's stated goals are to improve extensibility/pluggability, support ease-of-development through the use of new language features, and to better support next-generation web application development

The OpenJDK community has posted information and the first early access source for JDK 7's Modules. "This page covers the implementation of the modularity specifications defined by JSR 277 and JSR 294 as well as the related work in the JDK. [...] The Modules project hosts the reference implementation of the new core functionality and serves as an umbrella for other related work items developed by other OpenJDK groups."

The GlassFish web services stack has a new name: Metro. Combining the JAX-WS RI and WSIT projects, Metro is "a high-performance, extensible, easy-to-use web service stack. It is a one-stop shop for all your web service needs, from the simplest hello world web service to reliable, secured, and transacted web service that involves .NET services." More information and perspective is available in introductory blogs by Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Arun Gupta, and Harold Carr.